Before we even get started with Search Engines, we need to understand a little more about how search engines work. View the video below from the very good Common Craft Plain English series on Web Search – Strategies in Plain English

SquirrelNet
SquirrelNet is a kids only search engine that has Google SafeSearch activated. From the homepage itself, you can also access the Google directory of websites relevant for children.

Dib Dab Doo & Dilly Too!
The search engine is again based on Google Custom Search and it tries to keep the content as children friendly as possible.

Kids Click!
A web search site designed for kids by librarians – with kid-friendly results!

Boolify
Librarians, teachers and parents have told us how hard it is for students to understand web searching. Boolify helps students bridge that gap by visualizing the process and letting students interact with the abstract concept behind the search process in a tangible and hands-on way.

No Search Engine is entirely 100% safe. Custom search helps to keep out a lot of unsavory links, but it is definitely not foolproof. Most of the search engines for kids also display ads with some undesirable ones sneaking in. Parental control software in combination with these search engines can help to keep children shielded from the bad side of the web. It is a tough battle but at least with these sites, parents and teachers can worry a little less.

As with any use of technology, the lesson will always include strategies for what to do when the “undesirables” sneak in.

A lot of students have been changing their theme this year only to discover that the meta widget (the little widget that helps you log in) has “disappeared!” Well the good news is, it hasn’t actually disappeared and there is a way to get it back.

First, you need to know:
Each theme comes with it’s default widgets – that means all themes start off with certain widgets automatically when you switch to a different theme. Sometimes the default widgets do NOT include a meta widget.

If your meta widget has “disappeared”:

Type the url of your blog into the address bar: (I’ll use my URL as an example) http://blogs.isb.ac.th/chrissyh

Add /wp-admin to the end of the url so it now looks like this:http://blogs.isb.ac.th/chrissyh/wp-admin

Click enter/return

You should now be able to log into the backend of your blog.

Go to Appearance, then widgets

Find the Meta widget and drag it back onto the sidebar

Remember to click save

You should be able to see the Meta widget on the frontend of your blog again! See? I told it was easy!

We are learning how to be better commentors on blogs. Here are some thoughts from our class discussion.

Refer to the facts of the post: Comment on the things that are interesting and new to you

Make Connections: Relate and compare things you are reading in the post to things that you already know.

Ask Questions: What about the content of the post is confusing to you? What don’t you understand? Remember that there will ALWAYS be questions in an active thinker’s mind!

Give Your Opinions: Make judgments about what you are reading. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Like? Dislike? Do you support or oppose anything that you have read? Why?

You could use the following sentence starters below to help you begin your comment

This reminds me of…
This is similar to…
I wonder…
I realized…
I noticed…
You can relate this to…
I’d like to know…
I’m surprised that…
If I were ________, I would ______________
If __________ then ___________
Although it seems…
I’m not sure that…

ISB will be closed Thursday 20th October and Friday 21st October 2011. All classroom blogs will activate a Virtual School Blog Post by 9am, Thursday morning. Each blog can be accessed via our Inside ISB Elementary Blog.
Click on your child’s classroom teacher’s name on the right hand side of the Inside ISB Elementary Blog front page.

There are also plenty of links to a wide variety of websites full of activities and games for learning on our Home Learning Links page on Inside ISB Elementary.

What did you think? It was pretty awesome wasn’t it? Do you think we could make something similar for our parents?
How do you think MJGDS students put this together?
How much did they prepare before filming?
What do you think they prepared before filming? During filming? After filming?
What would we have to do to make our video just as good?
Could all the grades work on one video together or do we need a video for every grade?